The Story of Man’s Search for God

Friday was the 18th Yahrzeit of Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik. As the last days of Passover approach, here is what the Rav writes, in Festival of Freedom (pp. 53-54), about the humanity’s search for God, the story we tell each other on the Seder night:

God reveals Himself to man if and when the latter searches for Him. If one does not inquire, if one expects God to reveal Himself without making an all-out effort to find Him, one will never meet God. “But from there you will seek the Lord and you shall find Him, if you search after Him with all your heart and all your soul” (Deut. 4:29).
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On the first night of Pesah, we tell the story of a long search by man for God, of God responding to the inquisitive search, of God taking man, who longs for Him, into His embrace. At the Seder, we try to stimulate the naive curiosity of the children and thereby make them God-searchers. The quest for God, along with the acceptance of the commandments, is the true spiritual liberation.